Top things to look forward to in Civilization 6

The Civilization series has been going strong ever since the original Civilization debuted in the early 90’s, and these turn-based strategy games now have a loyal following worldwide. So it makes sense that fans of strategy computer games are eagerly awaiting Civilization VI, the latest game in the series which ships on October 21 this year.

And Civilization VI is looking like it could be one of the series’ most innovative games to date, packing a slew of new features like improved diplomacy, new world leaders to compete against and fine-tuned gameplay all-round. So without further ado, here follows a list of the top things to look forward to in the upcoming Civilization VI.

Cities are no longer like a deck of cards

A major change in Civilization VI is that, unlike in earlier instalments of the Civilization series, cities won’t just take up one map tile, but will be spread across several map tiles. And it’s clear that this “unstacking of cities” is one Civilization VI’s major new features, and adds a whole new strategic dimension to the game. In Civilization VI, cities will have specific “districts” on each tile devoted to a concrete activity. For instance, there will be a science district where laboratories, research labs and the like will be housed.

This not only requires more micromanagement and strategic thought, but also opens up new options when going to war against enemy civilizations (civs for short), as one can target a cities’ economic or science districts and cripple a rival’s civilization accordingly…

Some units can stack now, and builders are different

One of the best features of the earlier Civilization V was the “unstacking of units”, that is, military units and other unit types like settlers and workers could not share map tiles, which helped reduce clutter and made combat in the game more strategic and fun.

Civilization VI is partially undoing this, though, as some units like settlers and artillery will be able to stack with other military units, in a move that certainly makes a lot of sense. After all, having to move a settler unit to another point of the map in order to build a new city was always fraught with peril, as it could be captured by an enemy civ or those pesky barbarians, causing no end of frustration. And of course, it makes sense that valuable artillery should be escorted by another military unit so that it can rain death on enemies more securely…

Also, builders replace the old worker units seen in the earlier Civilization V, and have the advantage of being able to build things instantly (so no more waiting around for that important construction project to be completed), and also disappear after a set number of uses, which should help reduce map clutter in the end game.

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